After half an hour of walking, the circus was in sight. Despite it almost being midnight, it was buzzing with people. Alice's chest felt tight.
"Oh my gosh! They still have the Ferris wheel! You gotta try it!" Marie pulled the hesitant Alice along by the hand, her eyes sparkling with excitement.
"Weren't you the one telling me to ease up on the kid earlier" Alkaline chuckled as he followed close behind.
They moved towards the ticket booth at the front, getting into a long line. They waited there for a couple of minutes. Alice attempted to join in on the small talk- she wanted to join in on the small talk- but she still had trouble raising her voice.
While Alice stammered over her words, a large shadow appeared behind her. Marie's face lit up once more.
"It's Wallie the Werepineapple!" She squealed.
A large inflatable pineapple mascot stood behind Alice. The face on the front had a cartoonish scowl, showing the character's sharp teeth.
Without saying a word, the walking pineapple extended his arm holding out three VIP tickets.
"Are these for us? Oh, you shouldn't have!" Marie was quick to accept the gift. But before she could take anything from the pineapple man's hand, Alkaline interrupted her.
"I don't like this, Maire. Something's off."
"You always say that when we get free stuff! Relax a bit, we are here to have fun! Aren't we?" Marie gave Alkaline a reassuring grin. Mumbling a thank you, he quickly snatched the tickets from the outstretched hand.
"And look, now we won't have to wait in line any longer! Come, I want to see if any of the rides have changed!"
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For the next two hours, the trio swept through the carnival. Trying out several rides and games. Alkaline carried various prizes that he had won for Marie as she devoured a stick of cotton candy.
There was still a bit of time before the circus show started. Alkaline stat atop a dunker as Marie threw bean bags at a small target, missing over and over again. As she threw said bags, he and Alice spoke.
"What guild are you planning on joining?" He asked
"Guild? Oh yeah, I haven't put much thought into it yet." She said, twiddling with a puzzle box that she had won as a prize.
"I haven't heard too much about outsider guilds, but I'd consider myself more knowledgeable than most. Shoot me some questions kid. I'm sure I could pick at your brain till you decide on one."
"Well, there were a couple I heard about while doing research... though it was only because they were among the most popular ones. How about the Zodiac guild? They sounded cool"
"Those guys... They're more of a roleplay guild, y'know. The whole knights and princesses typa thing. They're so dedicated to it that it's scary. They're ranked number five in all of Eclipse you know?" He leaned back, now lying down on the board as Marie targeted- and missed the red and yellow striped target
"Umm, then how about... Hearth?"
"Never heard of em'. Shoot me another one-" A bean bag flew smacking Alkaline in the face. Chuckling could be heard from Marie.
"What about... Carcosa? They're the top-ranked"
"... Don't get involved with those guys." He sighed "They're a bunch of nut jobs who think that they'll be able to achieve Godhood. Seriously, they have a whole ranking system of the top 100 players and you know what they call em'? Oracles. Nothing good comes from them" He sat back up, feet swaying as he turned to look at Alice.
Just then, with a grunt of effort, a bean bag slammed clean into the center of the target. Alkaline didn't even get the chance to yelp before he was dunked into the ice-cold water. Marie pumped her fist in the air with a triumphant chuckle.
Alkaline resurfaced coughing "You witch! I was in the middle of talking! I got water in my mouth!" Before breaking out into a hearty laugh "That was a good shot though"
Marie walked over to the small pool and gave Alkaline a high-five before helping him out.
"Looks like we're gonna need to go get changed. Why don't you have some time to yourself and meet up with us when the show starts? We'll save you a seat" She looped her arm with Alkaline's, dragging him off to God knows where.
"...Oh right! The mask!"
As she wandered, she noticed that there were fewer people out and about. "Makes sense, it's almost 2am. Anyone who's still awake is headed to the circus." She muttered to herself.
"Visage de lâche... That's from an old world language... French, I think?" She racked her memory of history class. The country and language have been gone for nearly 200 years, but she could recognize one word from all the lectures. "Visage means face right?"
A small red and white striped tent, maybe just big enough for two people to lie end to end in. A crude sign was hammered into the dirt that said "Visage de laches."
Opening the tent flap, she was welcomed by a man with very prominent eye bags. His cheeks were sunken in and there was no sparkle of life in his eyes. He uttered "Welcome" in a monotone voice.
"..." Alice tried to speak, but decided against it. Instead, she chose to browse the shop's goods.
Her hunch was correct, this was a mask shop!.. But the masks sold here were... Strange. They mostly depicted faces experiencing different emotions, but the faces were so exaggerated that they seemed uncanny. Out of all the oddities, one mask stood out.
Unlike the others, this one only covered the upper half of the head. It was as if a tragedy mask was cut in half at the nose and then had the beak of some sort of bird in place of where the nose would have been... It was a rather odd shape, but it wasn't as uncanny as the other ones... So maybe it was a step up?
Just then, a face appeared mere millimetres away from Alice's own. He wore a mask that was a lot simpler than the other ones here, being entirely smooth with no facial features. It was dark red in colour, almost like that of blood.
What made it terrifying however, was the customizations that the owner of the mask had done to it. Two massive X shapes were carved out where the eyes would be, revealing only the white of his sclera and the green of his pupils. A large semicircular shape was carved where the mouth would be, seemingly to mimic a smile. In the inky blackness of said smile, she could only see his pearly white teeth and pink gums.
"Ohh~ that one interests you? Yippee! Horray!" He backed away, dancing about the interior of the tent. Alice leaned against one of the display cases clutching her heart trying to calm down from the scare she had just received.
The way he moved was not natural, it was as if he were being swung around. That's to say that his momentum never came to a complete stop; when he attempted to steady himself, he merely slowed down before pushing back in again. The best way to describe him would be like a rag doll or a plate of jelly being tossed around.
"Please take him! Oh wow is he! He hath no partner for so long boo hoo!" He mimed crying with his balled fists.
Now that she was able to get a better look at him, he appeared to wear a fully dark red jester's garb. The only contrast being the golden bells on his hat, sleeves and shoes which strangely never rang, despite his erratic movement.
"W- Who are you!" She shouted, holding out her shaking hand ready to cast a spell at a moment's notice.
"Oh little old me? You flatter me!~ Oh me oh me! She's interested in little old me!" At the end of his sentence, he stopped moving completely, no wobble or toss. His head cocked all the way back, staring at the roof of the tent.
"I am a herald of a better time my friend..." He paused, his voice now a deep growl as his hands vigorously scratched at his neck.
"My name is Tweehee!" His voice returned to normal as he jumped into the air, making a star shape with his body before landing back on the ground.